A Long Way To Go: A Travelling Story (2015)

Chapter 1

I just came out of the plane. It was grand that I never seen before. When I just went out of the airport, I saw my name on the board written ‘Debra Hassan’. When I just came nearby, I saw a lady of my age coming. She’s one of my university friends.

She cried “Debra!”                            

I shouted “Maisha!”

We embraced.

After that, we went to her apartment. She asked “Have I talked to you about my husband?”

I said “Nope”.

Maisha said “My husband, Iliyas is a lawyer. He is a man of few words. Sometimes, his behavior sometimes gets strange when he gets angry. It’s horrible if I describe it. It’s more like people pressing a horn in the bike. He acts like a stranger and a lawyer but when he becomes romantic, it’s like a beast and the beauty”.

I smiled.

“Oh, strange!” said I.

After that, I have taken a nap in the guest room. The guest room was such that it was clean and neat. The bed was short in size but long if you lay down. There were posters of classic films hanging on the frame. I stared at them while lying in the bed.

After the sun was set, I went to the window. I saw the sky became pink as if something great would come. I heard someone knocking the door. When Maisha opened it, she saw a hulky man with a French beard wearing glasses. His intense look surely blew my mind away. We had dinner together.

“Maisha, my darling, sorry I was late” said the man.

“Oh Iliyas! It’s ok, how’s the high court?” asked Maisha.

“Good. Anyways, you haven’t introduced me to your friend” said Iliyas (the man).

“Oh, she’s our friend from the university, Debra. She came to visit Bangladesh for three months” said Maisha.

“Oh I see. Great!” said Iliyas.

After that, Iliyas went to his room. His tears came from his eyes by mentioning his long lost friend ‘Haroon’. Who was Haroon? Is he the answers to all the questions? Is he the person who started the story of their shattered lives?

When Maisha and I went inside the room, he stared at us by hiding his tears.

“Who is Haroon?” asked Maisha.

“It’s none of your business! Please leave me alone” shouted Iliyas.

We were shocked a little bit because of his strange behavior. I felt that he was tired of life. I think, there was something missing that I may help it out.  Though, I didn’t have anything to do, Maisha and I watched a movie while her husband, Iliyas was working on the criminal case.

The movie was so good that I felt like watching it again. Maisha ate 5 boxes of pop corns that she forgot to throw it in the dustbin. I just ate 2 boxes. We danced while the famous song was played in the movie- you know, it’s Bollywood. We heard the sound of someone who was dancing. When I went to Iliyas’s room, I saw him dancing with the same song. We smiled. But when he saw us, he switched off the cell phone radio.

“Go away!” said Iliyas.

We just got upset for that.

It was almost 12 o clock that we slept. Another day, we woke up and took breakfast. Maisha just asked me to go to a shopping mall with her. As she insisted, I did not refuse. We went there with a car. Wow! Maisha was a fast driver. Seriously, I would say. When we went to the shopping mall, I just saw a man coming in front of us. His friendly smile attracted me a lot. Maisha was just blushing. I know, I know we girls are strange while we see boys.

The man exclaimed “Maisha! How’s Iliyas?”

Maisha replied “He’s fine. Have we met?”

The man said “We actually haven’t met but yet, I saw you guys in Facebook. Wow! What a big lawyer! I am Saiful”.

I exclaimed “Saiful! The poet. Hey, I read your poems. So original”.

Saiful said “Aah yes. Some of my poems are coming after two days in the book fair”.